Konispol Cave, southern Albania, and correlations with other Aegean caves occupied in the Late Quaternary

The spread of farming in the Eastern Adriatic

“…At Konispol Cave, four radiocarbon determinations place the Late Mesolithic component in a fairly narrow time range from 6650-6260 BC, while three dates fall within the 'Early Neolithic' and range from 6030-5800 BC (Harrold et al 1999), suggesting a gap of at least 130 years between the latest Mesolithic and earliest Neolithic dates. The stratigraphy and fauna from Konispol, however, fill this gap (Russell 1998;Schuldenrein 1998). The open-air site of Sidari provides provocative evidence of an in situ adoption of ceramics by indigenous Mesolithic people (Perlès 2001).…”

The Mesolithic lithic industries of the eastern Adriatic zone

“…The level assumed to be Epigravettian provided the date of 7430 ±80 BP. Level 49 provided a similar date in the same trench (7550 ±80 BP) (Schuldenrein 1998). The site of Putanja-Portonov - (Ruka et al 2014) in Albania could possibly be also attributed also to the Epigravettian.…”

Reassessing the Mesolithic\Neolithic ‘gap’ in Southeast European cave sequences

“…This is the case, for example, at Sidari on Corfu (Sordinas 1969), Konispol in Albania (Russell 1998;Schuldenrein 1998), Odmut in Montenegro, (Srejovi≤ 1974;Kozłowski et al 1994), and Vela Spila in Croatia (∞e≠uk and Radi≤ 2005). However, considering the circum-Adriatic region as a whole, it is noticeable that there are significantly fewer radiocarbon dates for the period 6600-6000 cal BC compared to the six centuries immediately before or after; this requires explanation, but it is beyond the scope of the present paper, except to observe that this period contained two key events, one climatic (the '8.2 ka event') and the other cultural (the spread of agriculture through the Balkan and Italian peninsulas), which probably impacted significantly on demography, settlement pattern, and the use of caves and rockshelters (e.g.…”